Terrence Phearse

Dear Shirley Print

Description: This is a vintage-style 297x 420 mm art piece printed on Kraft paper.

Beginning in the mid-1940s until the late 90s, a Kodak Shirley Card was used by photo labs to calibrate skin tones, shadows, and lighting during the printing process. It used all white models as a standard for developing all photographs which came to photo labs. The range of film emulsions was generally calibrated for white skin and had limited sensitivity to brownish tones. For many decades, chemicals that would bring out these colors were largely left out. To color match "Shirley's" skin tone was to achieve a "normal" color balance, a method that was applied to everyone's film, regardless of their skin color. This photograph is of my grandmother, taken in 1962 that I used to give her photograph some agency in this bias.
Condition: New
Size: 297 x 420 mm
Paper Type: Inkjet Print on Kraft
Seller: Terrence Phearse
Terrence Phearse is an artist and curator. He is currently the Editorial Director of Photography at Musée and is a former fashion editor. Phearse lives and works in New York and London and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Visual Arts: Philosophy, Aesthetics and Art Theory.